


Ripples in the Sea of Time: Shark Tales

by InsaneScriptist



Series: Ripples 'Verse [2]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: fucked up family relationships, in general, shark has trauma, time-traveling assassins are not well-adjusted people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-02 15:02:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10220888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneScriptist/pseuds/InsaneScriptist
Summary: Choices have consequences. Going to the past to destroy the future? Ambitious. Starting at twelve or so? Not impossible but unlikely. Good thing that Squalo's audacious enough for it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As always, beta'd by the majestic Umei no Mai

Squalo woke up to the sound of his parents arguing. Which was funny since they'd been divorced since he was in his late teens and all the happier for it.

And that wasn't odd since he was back in his body as it was at twelve. Because damn if the cow-trash hadn't managed to follow through on his promises there. He was back! It was almost worth laughing about, if things hadn't gone to shit in the future.

Oh and there was his mother yelling. His father was too. Yeah, he remembered this argument. Or the general jist of it. This was one of the bad ones. And right before a math test too... That explained why he was at his desk studying.

Or was trying to. Math was not his greatest subject but not his weakest one either. It was just that past a certain level, math was rather useless to an assassin and daily living so he didn't care for it. It was for calculating percentages, measuring, figuring distance, determining how much fuel was needed to travel here, layover times and so on. Simple shit really, not the fancy shit that was needed to plot a graph of a cubic equation. Which he remembered nothing about, so he should probably study it. Enough to pass the test anyway.

He was more of a trig and geometry person, which was why he was glad that while the Varia did require seven languages to join, they didn't require calculus. That's right, he was going to get scouted for that soon-ish, so he'd have a few possible Varia watchers looking for potential; next few months soon-ish. The Varia didn't just invite a brat still in school to join them without stalking them first. They didn't look at middle school students as a rule because most weren't Quality, but Squalo had recently turned twelve and he remembered that he would be approached by a teacher soon about skipping his last year of middle school, so he'd be in high school.

It was part of why he went back to before he joined the Varia. More freedom of movement, relatively. Fewer eyes actually, because once Tyr was dead, he had been busy as fuck working on understanding the Varia, without much of a background in leadership. So while he may have looked like he knew what he was doing, he learned most of that from Xanxus after a few months of leading the Varia.

The Varia being curious little shits that they were, would follow him unless intimidated otherwise and being a teenager -no matter how skilled- cut into the intimidation factor unless you were a creepy little shithead like Bel. Or were just naturally intimidating like Boss but most teenagers weren't like that. Squalo wasn't.

There was a crash in the background, because he was vaguely sure that his mother was a little drunk and had reason to be since his father had missed their anniversary despite a previous agreement of trying to do better.

He wondered darkly if his father had already started cultivating his mistress at this point, since after Delf i n a... shit! If he could hear his parents his sister certainly could!

His sister's room wasn't that far away and no one would notice him leaving his room, so he did. She was tinier than he remembered, but that happened when he last saw her as a grown adult and she was still so little. They had quite the age gap between them so she hadn't even started school; her education with various toys and such yes, but not school because his sister was nearly a decade younger than he was. And already imitating his bad habits, while choosing a few more of her own. She was going to end up cranky, missing sleep.

Delfina was the youngest of Squalo's siblings and it was probably for the best that she had never met their older brother, with her being conceived after his death, and the conception was certainly an 'oops' on his parents' part; otherwise they would have likely parted ways earlier. Squalo would have liked to have said that he missed his older brother, had fond memories of him and so on but he didn't so Squalo never bothered mentioning him at all. To be honest he didn't mention family much at all, leading to a rather useful if persistent impression that his parents were dead.

Delfina however... she already had that ghastly coping mechanism in place or at least the start of it, and had already started with sign language if not exactly proper sign language since that was a bit hard to teach to a toddler. Squalo wasn't sure his parents had noticed yet that she was more interested in signing than speech since she was still at the child babble makes no sense stage, but they'd probably get to the point of taking her to the doctor sometime in the next year. Or was it the year after that? That bit of family drama at least made his parents play nice for a little longer. In public at least.

If she didn't hear the argument, then she could pretend it didn't happen. And while people using Flames young -even without knowing that it was Flames they were using- were pretty rare, they did happen. And there were often complications, generally because normal went out the window at the first sign of colored fire. Yeah, it was when she was four or so that she first used her Flames and that usage wasn't as obvious as a fiery aura; Mist Flames didn't quiet have the density for that without focusing them, but they could be used to block out sound. Not always, but that was later when she was older and knew how to control said Flames.

Squalo responded appropriately, a bit clumsy because he had to keep the flourishes and fancy fingerwork that the Varia used to turn a simple 'can't sleep, fine' into six other phrases, with varying context. No need to say, 'didn't sleep and happier for it' with all the implications that could be furthered with a bit of body language.

He patted his sister's head, went back to grab his work, returned to her room with his math book and a notebook and started humming 'La Marseillaise' complete with the verses not in France's national anthem, so the song lasted longer. Not really lullaby material but his sister seemed to like it.

It seemed apropos to hum while planning a route to see the Giglio Nero Donna, because really, that was going to take some doing and he'd rather have things settled within twenty-four hours and that seemed a bit more important than a math test that he was rather sure he had barely passed the first time around.

He'd just re-take it later, since he could probably justify running off for a day as adolescent rebellion considering his home life right now. Well if he wanted to draw attention to said homelife, which he didn't, so maybe he should make sure he'd pass it. Plus he had to set about preparing for the day ahead, like a change of clothing so he wasn't in a school uniform.

He had almost twenty years of experience of being Varia; this would be easy.

* * *

There were a few things that Squalo forgot to consider:

His body was twelve and wasn't used to four hours of sleep a night.

His mother decided to drop him off at school personally, which did happen occasionally but rarely and usually before she decided to run off to her relatives for a while. Well at least he'd not have to dodge her at home for a bit; his mother was sharp and that he was about half-sure his father wasn't actually as committed to their marriage as she was would be something she might pick up on. Especially the bit about his father's possible mistress.

His father was gone before Squalo even was dragged away from slumber by his alarm clock to get ready for school, so Squalo suspected that his father was likely going to only show up in the evenings for meals on occasion. Just him, Delfina and the housekeeper then.

Math was his first class of the day and he was rather sure he had bombed that test. Not massively so, but he had probably drooled on it before the teacher picked it up at the end of class since he fell asleep partway through it.

And nearly twenty years of being Varia meant that anyone trying to wake him up in a normal fashion ended up a lot of menace and killing intent thrown in their direction and he probably made some person piss themselves when they disturbed him, so they decided to let him sleep.

It obviously wasn't his day.

Squalo had woken up in time to not miss all of his last class before lunch and was a model enough student once he woke up. Like Japan, classes in Italy stayed put with the exception of certain classes that required specific equipment or structures, so he didn't have to tromp across campus to the music building or one of the science labs. Good news was that a classmate did tell him what he had missed in terms of class and homework.

Bad news was that his teacher had decided to take offense to Squalo sleeping in class at all but the problem with them doing that was that it was one of the foreign language teachers and Squalo had nearly two decades of Varia experience; fluency was no trouble, nor was accent or cultural knowledge.

Hell, he had even managed not to swear too much.

Needless to say that was a fiasco and Squalo decided that he was skipping the rest of the day. Usually school meant a few classes, then break and another class until one or so in the afternoon depending on the class, subject and school. He'd have to get whatever he had missed from a classmate, but honestly, Squalo didn't care about his grades too much. Never had, when his first passion was the sword and mastering it.

So Squalo rolled this one guy's motorcycle out of where it was parked and down the street a little way before he hotwired it. Squalo honestly didn't remember the guy's name, but did remember that this guy's parents financed at least ten or so vehicles before they stopped buying him new ones, so really he was saving the motorcycle from being destroyed somehow. Was he taking them apart or something? If he was crashing them he'd have spent more time off school and possibly killed himself before racking up that high a body count; then again, some people really were that lucky.

At least with a motorcycle he didn't have to try to reach the pedals, because that would be really fucking frustrating.

* * *

The most annoying part of the trade school that was the mafia academy was that it was all the way over in Calatafimi-Segesta; the town itself was under Vongola control, managed by one of the underbosses, but was surrounded on three other Vongola-aligned powers: the Lanza, the Alliata and his own Famiglia who pretty much ruled all the area north of Marsala all the way over to Castellammare del Golfo. Furthermore it was close to Cavallone interests in Castellammare del Golfo, the Rocca were pretty much next door in Alcamo, while the Zanasi and Scarlatti held a lot of the territory around Marsala, until they ran up against Alliata's territory.

In effect this meant that the mafia academy was in the center of the Vongola dominated western half of Sicily. And the Giglio Nero were a neighboring neutral family on the Vongola's eastern side. Pretty much a buffer, that the Vongola might be willing to help should they be attacked, for a price. Which was unlikely to happen since the eastern half of Sicily wasn't a breeding ground for the mafia. Historically, but migrations and the transferal of ideals happened historically too. So most of the famiglias that were there were small and fiercely independent; the rest were planted there by the Vongola mostly during the reign of Ottava's father to protect their interests, so those ones were mostly along the high way to Messina for the ferry for when people wanted to get to the mainland. Which was why the Vongola managed Termini Imerese and the Giglio Nero had all the area around the Parco delle Madonie and were officially based in Castelbuono, with all sorts of little hideaways in the mountains.

First off he'd have to get from Calatafimi to Alcamo, which was easy; he knew the land and how people watched it from here to there. Then from there, he'd have the choice to head up to Palermo and go along the sea until he had to head back into the mountains in Giglio Nero territory. Other options included going through the mountains in Varia territory -which were watched, if mostly by newbies- or zig-zagging through smaller highways and along the lines of the territory held directly by the Vongola really, he could end up in Prizzi if he didn't head towards the sea in the north. Admittedly he'd be going through Lanza territory in Corleone and passing pretty close by Camporeale but there'd still be a lot of backtracking because of the mountains and lack of roads.

The safest route for clandestine travel, so far as he could figure, was not along the sea road, no matter how quick and well-maintained the roads might be; plus there were tolls and he didn't have a helmet. Going to Palermo just wasn't worth the effort when he could turn off at Partinico, pass San Guiseppe Jato, go through Corleone and pass through the prissy Prizzi's territory. Then he'd start heading north east, going through Fontanamurata and hit mountain roads he'd have to try not to kill himself on until he reached the Giglio Nero's home base; just looking at those roads on a map had been bad enough. Most of the business done by them was in that area, so it was a good bet that Donna Aria would be around there somewhere.

After that, he'd be playing things by ear, because really the riskiest part of the whole scheme was dependent on her benevolence and playing on her maternal feelings for her eventual child, who was probably being used by Byakuran after her death.

If nothing else, he did write down a list of shit he needed to do and why, in case his future mind went back to the future. No need to just have one desperate may-work and half-crazy plan when you can have multiple ones.

* * *

The thing was, it was about two hours from the mafia academy to Prizzi. Then another hour and a half to where he could take his choice of crazy mountain roads, around the SS120. From there it was about another two hours to Castelbuono and who knew how long the business with the Giglio Nero would take, so Squalo was grateful there was no school tomorrow. His ass was _dead_ from all that riding.

Thankfully the motorcycle had a full tank and he re-filled before he got to Prizzi and took a more circular way out of Corleone; it was not paranoia if you just made them think you took it out for a joy-ride should anyone seriously kick up a fuss, and Squalo was tall enough at twelve to pass for a woman, if a young one. He had to change out of his school uniform, because while the mafia academy was officially a trade school, it was still a private school and that meant a uniform of sorts; planning to skip the entire day meant he had a different set of clothes all prepared before his mother had otherwise ruined that plan but he had just tossed them in his school bag with his books before leaving for school. Squalo had forgotten how much he had hated those trousers, because they're hideous and would offend Lussuria to his very soul and dress code violations were probably the least infractions Squalo's going to pull off in school, since he's flagrantly breaking the law on numerous fronts right now. Not that anyone pulls him over or thinks anything suspicious about him driving.

Speeding may sound like a wonderful idea to shorten the trip but he'd rather not deal with the police. The good thing about borrowing his classmate's motorcycle is that due to omerta, it's not going to get reported as stolen. And really, there's a reason that most in the mafia academy are dropped off and picked up and it's because there's more than just one student who'd hotwire unsecured vehicles on a whim. It's something of a shame that hotwired vehicles tend to act up a lot once fixed, since it's a good bike even if he spent nearly six hours killing his ass on it.

Few proper mafia famiglias live inside any town or city; most have an estate on the outskirts so that they're close enough for all the attractions of urban living and none of the drawbacks, so Squalo kills his ass some more, meandering around the outskirts as he looks for Flame traces.

He's not Bel or Boss who can track a person for miles with the barest of traces, but he's certainly not blind to them and yeah, a couple of klicks outside of Castelbuono is the Giglio Nero stronghold.

And yes, he can feel the Arcobaleno Curse from here; Aria was a little older than Boss' age and hadn't started attending the Vongola parties and so on until she was nearly twenty from what he remembered of the gossip, so she's around eighteen or so. Mostly he remembers that she started showing up a few months after Boss was frozen, so there's that. He does know that the Giglio Nero do have a property in Palermo, as do most mafia famiglias of a certain affluence, for a certain value of 'in'; Palermo was always a few murders away from a complete upset in the balance of power and a bloody street war. As the ruling powers of Palermo knew this, they tried to keep everything reasonably civil, so it was practically neutral territory. In some spots.

He cut off the engine and looked at the simple manor; it's not built to impress, but Squalo could admire the defensive potential. There was a solid and functional wall surrounding the place, not a mere garden wall but something that could take a hit, being a few feet thick. The gate wasn't a fancy wrought metal one on exposed hinges; the sun would shine from behind the mountains before setting and thus put the area into an early dark and blinding any afternoon invaders. Dawn was a different story, but again, the mountains meant that it would only blind them for a bit in the morning; maybe around eight or so in the morning depending on the time of the year? Then again, it wasn't like the trees would take off the worst of that and they weren't close enough to be a hazard for any defensive purposes. There was a solid kill zone from the trees to the wall, and if the Giglio Nero didn't have their own well here, he'd be surprised; the trees alone said they had plenty of water.

A guard detached themselves from the wall, and told Squalo that he was expected. Yes, well, that's what being a seer meant. Knowing things in advance.

Squalo was let in the front door, although he had to surrender his sword, because even at twelve he never went anywhere without it if he could get away with it. The front door opened up to an entrance hall that was practically cozy. Still defensible, but the decor was less showing off wealth and more of a mish-mash between what was built into the place and what was decorating. No still lives or landscapes that he could see, but a lot of religious art.

He was led to the right and through three more rooms, where he saw he was in a study and possible office, along with Donna Aria. This was obviously a converted space, from what was originally a library, since the large room had access to an upper level through an internal and spiraling stair case. Plus lots of books.

"Squalo, I've been waiting a while to see you." She said confidently, thankfully leaving off his family name and waving away her men. They didn't protest that though, so that was interesting.

"Oh?" He'd not even been back for twenty-four hours yet.

"Yes, so it's best that we get this bit of business out of the way first. Your hand please?"

Squalo extended his right hand, and she held it as the pacifier around her neck flashed a soft orange light. He didn't feel much different. A little off, but there were all kinds of explanations for that. He still felt like him, the older him that he remembered, but a little different still. He wasn't sure what had happened. Ideas yes, but he wasn't a Mist. He felt a bit more settled, oddly or not so oddly enough. More like he belonged here, instead of being a mental interloper in his own but younger body.

"That certainly confirmation that it is a less than ideal future," she muttered, clearly angry about it. "I understand, maybe too much, but that is not a good way to go about things even if doing so may accidentally save the world."

"I'm failing to follow your reasoning for that." Squalo admitted, as his mind was currently wondering if it was just an integrated copy of his future mind in terms of thought patterns, knowledge and memories.

"I shall be blunt. The Arcobaleno were dead. We're Cursed yes, but being alive serves the purpose in keeping the world alive, or so my mother said and as I Saw before I accepted being Cursed. I didn't want it, but I dared not do otherwise. The Arcobaleno act as power-sources to balance the Flames of the World and without that balance, the world ends up Wrong and a series of natural disasters would kill over ninety percent of the world's population in less than a decade. In that sense, it's a small sacrifice, but one that's likely to kill me and certainly damn my daughter and my famiglia if this particular future comes to pass."

"And so you want help." Squalo surmised.

"Clearly. The Curse impedes my ability, letting the Curse run its course until the next time the Arcobaleno are chosen is a poor one, for all that it is a survivable one for my daughter without outside interference."

"But not the rest of the Arcobaleno?" Squalo asked, thinking of Mammon.

"Skies are rare and while her life wouldn't be much longer than mine, my grandchildren wouldn't have been Cursed; the Curse getting passed onto another Sky and a new set of Arcobaleno before the Curse was finished for a few decades. The rest of the Arcobaleno have been doomed since my mother said nothing to them prior to getting Cursed herself, as far as I can tell. I imagine there's a way to free them, but I just don't know how and I don't have the ability to remove the Curse or the pacifiers. I just don't know enough, but I'm not willing to be the cause of the end of the world by not wearing it."

"The rest of the Arcobaleno do need a Sky Arcobaleno. For the Harmony factor." Squalo said and pointedly didn't ask.

"Yes, and balancing their Flames with mine is not easy. The Vongola may be the most powerful mafia famiglia, but they're not led by the most powerful Sky. Doing it will kill me, but not for some years yet."

"Huh." He'd always known that Boss was the most powerful of the Vongola's selection of Skies, but the little Primo-copy wasn't far off either in terms of strength. Aria as she was, felt a significant bit more powerful than Enrico, the weakest of Nono's sons; closer to Federico's own level than Enrico. Federico wasn't amazingly strong, but certainly strong enough that no one really minded that Massimo had more Flames since Federico had the better qualifications to be Decimo. Like actual Guardians and a decent attitude.

And this was Aria who was reduced to what Flames the pacifier wasn't consuming. He believed that. He could. The Arcobaleno were monsters.

But something was nagging at him.

"You said confirmation, but you also said that your Sight is hampered. How did you know?"

"Because you're not the first with a bit of mental temporal displacement. I had a visitor, a little over a month after my mother's death."

It couldn't have been Boss. Boss had no desire to relive parts of his childhood and unlike Squalo, he found being watched by just the Varia instead of everyone to be a relief. Boss had planned to go back to the day he had learned he was adopted... had the cow messed up?

He doubted it, but then he realized who else it could have been. "Bel." Because there was no way that the little shithead wouldn't go back in time, just to kill his brother again.

Aria only nodded. "He visits sometimes."

As if that wasn't creepy at all, but that was Bel all over. Brat was six or so, and really how long ago had he gone back? Because how old had Aria been after her mother passed? Asking that would have been a rude question. "Not surprising," Squalo said instead.

"You're staying for a meal. I believe you missed lunch after all."

And see, this was the sort of shit seers did. Squalo already hated it.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Squalo did stay for the meal; it was good stuff and the Giglio Nero were a tight-knit family, pretty much like a real wholesome family get-together with the sit-down dinner and people on guard duty wandering in and out, taking rolls and other bits in napkins. Apparently that was one of the reasons that the guards were doubled or tripled up like that, since of the few pairs he had managed to spot prior to entering, he had only seen one half of them wander in for food during the meal.

It was odd, but he could see what the appeal was for some people to do meals like this; at least once every so often. Especially in a smaller famiglia like this, although he was under the impression that it was something like this at all the Giglio Nero bases. It was still low-key freaky how Donna Aria was the sort that did make use of her powers for little things, like making sure that a particular bit of food went to this person on guard duty or that person who was elsewhere doing other things. It wasn't what he expected a Seer to do, but if all of this had been previously arranged then he had to give props for how elaborate it was.

He wasn't leaning towards it being arranged, as it felt too natural in its rhythms. He also had no idea why her men were being so friendly. As a rule, men in the mafia weren't friendly unless there were small children involved and even then generally only in public spaces because image was a very useful tool. At twelve, Squalo wasn't the sort of brat that would fall into that category.

And then he remembered Bel, Donna Aria's strong grip on the hearts of her men and yeah, it made sense for them to behave for strange guests that appeared on her doorstep and got invited to dinner. If Bel hadn't already left a trail of bodies somewhere for a media frenzy to set upon and prompt Nono to send a messenger about Bel's behavior… oh, wait that's not his problem anymore.

This was apparently a benefit of being twelve; he's not Varia yet and neither is Bel and so he's not responsible for Bel. None of Bel's messes, his 'projects' and whims were Squalo's responsibility.

It was telling that even the idea of dealing with puberty again couldn't dint his mood after that.

* * *

Squalo had managed to wave off the Donna's invitation to stay the night. He could get away with disappearing for a while, but anything longer than select periods of time and he was going to be in serious trouble. He was already going to be in trouble because it was late already -he had spent about seven hours on his stolen vehicle so far today- and there was no way he was going to get home before nightfall. The mountains might have put things into early dark, but maybe, if he felt like risking his ride and his life, he might manage midnight; it wasn't like rural Sicily had the best roads or even all that many streetlights. He might be going along the highway, but not all of it was going to be in the best repair, much less lit up with street lights. Two or three in the morning was a more likely case.

Getting in trouble was something he thought on, while killing his ass again on the drive back, because he would be in trouble. He could only blame 'home problems' for so much 'acting up'. He can't blame that for new skills he has had no reason or time to learn. He was in the body of his twelve year old self; there was only so much time for people to learn things and he just hasn't had the time to gain the experience and know-how he actually had.

It was probably why people had thought he had run off close-by, since he had no other means of transport than his feet -in theory- or at least found somewhere to practice outside of the academy, if he hadn't already gone home; people liked to lie to their own conscious. His parents wouldn't have noticed his absence but the staff would have. That said staff was used to his older brother doing things like abducting his younger brother until dark or later, so it was notable as Squalo's first time sneaking about and doing stupid shit by himself but not really out of the ordinary. That one guy's motorcycle getting stolen would be written off as coincidence by the school, especially if it turned up later, clearly hot-wired. He'd have to wipe it down for prints though, as a precaution and find some way to keep any possible scent traces from pointing at him but that was only sensible when dealing with stolen vehicles.

Squalo remembered that being a subject for a bit in high school, not that he'd ever taken it as class was geared toward older students that could drive legally since the first and most important part of driving stolen vehicles was not looking like you were taking it for a joyride as a dumb teenager. It wasn't Civic Studies which was fancy speak for 'Mafia History and Politics' but some other polite sounding alternative; Technical Studies or something like that. Ignorance, at least believable ignorance was quite an alibi here. He couldn't have stolen the motorbike if he didn't know how. He'd have to try and remember _when_ and _where_ he had learned things if he was going to keep this 'I'm twelve and ignorant' act going any longer.

The main kink in the plan of being gone too long was his parents' housekeeper, Rossella. Unlike his parents, she was there full-time being maid, nanny and cook, although she did have a few assistants. It wasn't like the house required more than a few people for upkeep, being small-ish and mostly valued for its location, being within a short drive of mafia school. It was practically the mafia's suburban version of Palermo with fewer foreign factions competing for power and influence. Less tension generally, because the people nearby generally wanted their children to do well in school, so targeting anyone in this area was usually a terrible idea. Even if it wasn't the parents that stayed around having or wanting to be elsewhere, there were housekeepers and bodyguards and so on to consider as eyes and guns. No one was so blind to the possibility of violence, although most just watched the student drama. Probably put bets on it too, to stave off boredom.

In his parent's case, they weren't really important enough to rate a bodyguard by default and had never bothered to hire a personal one; they just weren't prominent enough since they were only tangentially connected to the mafia in their business dealings and that was mostly through various relations. Most Sicilian Superbi were some brand of criminal after all, but his mother's immediate and more extended family were civilian through and through, although who they married frequently was not; the Soave had selective ignorance of criminal activities down to an artform. His parents had a few people for security but Squalo didn't remember them being too spectacular, beyond being intimidating-looking to most of the scum. Mostly they were drivers and door-greeters, not anything fancy or particularly skilled.

Rossella was a different story; a once-widowed, never-going-to-even-think-about-marrying-again type with a spring in her step and lots of disapproving looks at his parents' behavior. And at his brother, back when Otario had still been around. She was practically his only responsible parent in some ways, since both his parents were lacking in the parenting aspects although his mother at least tried to interact with him a lot more often than he remembered his father ever bothering with. Hiring her was probably one of his parents' better decisions, although he was pretty sure that Rossella's employment contract was with his mother only, although Squalo couldn't remember his father ever dallying with the cleaning staff. The man was probably smart enough not to approach Rossella, who would rebuff him then ensure her employer found out exactly what had happened. Plus he liked to think that his father wasn't so classless to fuck another woman in the home he shared with his wife.

Yeah, she was going to be so pissed at him and he was going to end up with her being extra vigilant for weeks; she'd probably assume it was due to last night's fight though, which could have unpredictable consequences later. For practically a civilian she was pretty sharp. Both her and his mother, but Rossella was a more immediate concern than his mother.

Squalo was not looking forward to Rossella's lectures or any comparison to his older brother; he understood that she'd be worried, but he'd rather not have to deal with her fears that he'd meet the same fate as Otario. Otario had been dead before he turned fifteen and had possessed all the nurturing personality of a rabid mongoose. Somehow still ended up dead with a few of his buddies at least wounded one day; Squalo hadn't really bothered learning the details, more involved in celebrating being an only child. Well until his parents' efforts at consoling each other led to Delfina.

And if Otario hadn't ended up shot dead, then Squalo probably would have gutted him by now -or at least seriously attempted to. That was less sibling rivalry and more just plain incompatibility with years of frustration piled on top; more than just a difference of opinion, ideals and methods. As Pantera had once phrased it, Otario had all his parents' worst traits. It was an unflatteringly bland description for the sort of emotionally manipulative and overly controlling shit Otario pulled off all the time, generally in the name of brotherly love. There was a reason that Squalo didn't have friends, because passionate or not, he wasn't utterly focused on learning the sword to the exclusion of everything else. He liked having people around to talk to and bounce ideas off, what with being an actually moderately balanced human being and all. Not everyone in the Varia was as crazy as the Officers and a number of them he had actually been friendly with, before they died or retired or...  


It -his brother, what happened in the future- was also a lot of shit he didn't want to think about. Not now, not when he was still trying to get a cohesive grip on the fact he was in the past and changing things. So he'd have to figure out how to change things to his benefit. That he could do while driving a motorcycle down mountain roads even though the 'sun' was already down, due to the mountains throwing the entire place into 'early' dark, although by the time he was out of the mountains, it really would be dark.

Thankfully, one of those would be happening when he was moved up to high school, having skipped his last year of middle school if things progressed similarly this time. He'd have the opportunity to meet the young Dino Cavallone before Dino's elder brother broke his neck in a riding accident and thus Dino required immediate remedial lessons via Reborn for the Cavallone to have any hope of staying together when Dino's old man died not very long afterwards. There'd be other heirs, heiresses and notables in his classes and years too. People worth being connected to, especially now that he'd have a relatively fresh start and not have his older brother being a pointed sword of Damocles at someone's neck. Last time he'd been twelve he'd been stuck in the habit of not being friendly so hadn't bothered, but this time around he could take advantage.

It would be beneficial; not just for him but the Varia later. One of the Varia's main issues was it's lack of useful political connections. Politics controlled funding, image and mission flow, especially before Squalo's first world tour when they expanded their client list five-fold in the first six months and made them known as pros within parts of organized crime with sufficient international connections the world over.

Not just for the Varia either; one of the main issues in the future was that Nono's ideology -and thus the crap that was taught to the 'Decimo'- made the Vongola, its allies and affiliates weaker. So having a few people with their heads on straight before things went to shit would be wise. It's one thing to be dedicated to your ideas, it's another to try an impossible one like trying to change human nature. Best to get his own spin out their early and embedded in people's heads before Nono tried to scoop out their brains and fill their skulls with fluff.

Human nature had pretty much been the same for ages. Sure it got shaped by culture in how it was expressed, but there was graffiti and dick jokes on Pompeii and dick jokes in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks and people made dick jokes in the future he remembered too. Trying to make people less greedy wasn't something that would happen. Just thinking about trying to do so while running a mafia organization of any size, after your own sons were dead and you were bringing in a new foreign heir… might as well bring a lamb to slaughter. Idealism was all well and good, until it was failed by reality. Then the idealist either broke, went bonkers and tried to force their idealism people through violence or ended up dead. Nono's chosen dupe obviously went with choices one and three. Choice three saved the Varia the effort of killing him, even if his death fucked over the morale of a lot of the Vongola's allies.

The Millefiore also had its start somewhere and the Vongola didn't know where the Millefiore had gained all its resources before the Gesso and Giglio Nero joined. The Varia had suspicions but between general CEDEF incompetence, the Vongola's complacency and lots of other things they had been practically blind to the rise of the Millefiore until the Millefiore started attacking the Vongola. Tracking down funding and such being done by the Varia was obviously hampered by Mammon's death and the resource constraints of the time.

As much as he wanted to go track down this Byakuran Gesso and messily murder him, that would have to wait a bit. For one, he had no idea of where the Gesso were currently based. Two, he was twelve and had restrictions on travel that an adult -or at least a teenager that could pass for adult up close- had. He had commitments, school and other things to do. Plus the brat was probably still a toddler and those kinds of kills always got far too much attention. Even if the kill was an 'accident.'

He was going to have to think on some things more. A lot of things. Fuck it all, he was going to have to be friendly to his classmates for some of it. Which would be terrible enough if he were twelve instead of mentally thirty-two, or near enough.

* * *

There were a couple of conclusions that Squalo reached on his long drive back. Some tied back into observations he hadn't registered earlier.

Donna Aria had no women of note in her immediate circle. She probably had women in her staff and knew women who were married to her peers, but the Giglio Nero were neutral and fiercely clannish. A lack of women either said lack of ability or a lack of people trying. And it was hard to be neutral in the right way, as a neighboring mafia to the Vongola lacking significant power, to make the Vongola say, 'not worth the effort of trying to conquer when the long approach might work.' The Giglio Nero weren't weak, maybe just a little old-fashioned, but it had been the people in the black Milliefiore uniforms that the Varia had actually considered to be a lot more threatening. The people who were actually Giglio Nero.

What Squalo was getting at was that she likely didn't have many people she knew as peers, much less friends considering she was a mafia Donna. Those were rather rare, but not unknown or entirely unique. But to lack even a female hitman? Well either they were somewhere else or just weren't there at all in the first place.

That was something that could be used. If only he could figure out how. Having closer ties to the Giglio Nero would mean that whatever Byakuran did to get Yuni to go along with him and thus suborn the entire Giglio Nero could be prevented, although it wouldn't stop the Curse of the Sky Arcobaleno from killing Aria. Pride alone would prevent such an offer of defense from being accepted; never mind the terms that Nono would likely make. Nono Vongola was a different collection of issues though so...

How did going back in time result in him planning a political coup and planning a possible assassination of Don Vongola? Passing the Vongola on would be wise, because fuck if Nono Vongola wasn't making a hash of things already. As it was, Xanxus would be fourteen soon and the incidents that made him a favored candidate as Decimo would be starting up soon after that. They'd be kept pretty hush-hush, but if Squalo managed to get enough people to his side, then tossed in his weight behind Xanxus as Varia... well it could almost be a bloodless coup if they didn't want to do the shadow king routine on one of Xanxus' adoptive brothers. Which could be fun, slowly ripping power away from Nono and Iemitsu.

Eh, he was Varia. Or had been; hopefully he was still Quality regardless. Fuck he'd figure out tenses later, once he figured out being twelve again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have had this chapter up some time ago; oops.


End file.
